People-powered Restaurant coming to Northbridge

Australia’s first permanent community-funded restaurant is coming to Northbridge in plans that were announced on Monday, 15 September 2014.

Opening in early 2015, Lucky Chan’s Laundry & Noodlebar will be located at 311 William Street and pay homage to the cultural history and legacy Asian immigrants have made to Northbridge.

In an Australian first, the community have the chance to co-fund and develop the project during a 60-day campaign (ending 14th November 2014)– should we mention this as it’s a bit of a deadline) to raise funds and make the three-level restaurant a reality.

The Lucky Chan’s Kickstarter campaign aims to raise $100,000 and invites supporters to contribute to the project’s construction. Support can be as little as $5 and in return, supporters received ‘rewards’ based on their level of support. These can be as simple as a dinner voucher or as elaborate as a private party for 150 guests valued at $20,000 at the new restaurant.

Lucky Chan’s is the latest project from the team behind Cocktail Gastronomy Catering and North Perth’s award-winning small bar, The Classroom. Co-owner Andrew Bennett says the community-funded campaign is a genuine way to get the people of Perth directly involved with the creation of the restaurant.

“We’re really excited to share our plans for Lucky Chan’s with the wider community and the fact that Northbridge will be home to Australia’s first permanent people-powered restaurant is a great endorsement for the evolution of Perth’s hospitality scene,” he said.

“Crowd funded restaurants have opened across the world and while there have been temporary community-supported projects in Australia before, this is the first time the community has the chance to invest in something permanent – in a sense owning a piece of their own bar.”

“Restaurants and bars are all about creating environments that people enjoy and feel comfortable in. What better way to do that than engage people during the design and construction phase?”

Cocktail Gastronomy General Manager Sasha Verheggen said a variety of social media networks have been created to gather feedback from people on what they want to see at Lucky Chan’s.

“We’ve created dedicated Twitter, Facebook and Instragram pages plus websites for Lucky Chan’s to make it easier for people to share comments, images, videos and other types of feedback during this process,” Sasha said.

“To our knowledge there hasn’t been an opportunity like this for the people of Perth to directly contribute to the creation of a restaurant and we can’t wait to hear what they want to see.”

Cocktail Gastronomy co-owner Daniel Sterpini said Lucky Chan’s theme will be one of a bustling Chinese laundry and street market complete with the colour, sights and smells of classic Asian street food but would be influenced from the feedback taken over the course of the campaign.

“Perth today is a melting pot of migrants including those from Asian countries such as Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, India, Indonesia and our dining culture is richer for the food legacies they have brought with them,” he said.

“As passionate advocates for authentic and real food and beverage experiences, we look forward to celebrating Northbridge’s rich Asian heritage at Lucky Chan’s, celebrating the past and renewing it for a new dining audience.”

Those keen to support Lucky Chan’s community-funding campaign can donate though www.luckychans.com.au and find more information about the project through Lucky Chan’s on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The community funding campaign finishes on Tuesday 14th November 2014.